My Saigoku Pilgrimage
KannonThis section is dedicated to my forthcoming trip to Japan in which I intend to fulfil the Saigoku (Saikoku) pilgrimage, a circuit of 33 temples mostly in the Kyoto region. The pilgrimage focuses on the bodhisattva Kannon (Skt. Avalokiteshvara, Ch. Guanyin). I will be visiting Japan during April 2010.
I aim to upload details of my plans, reflections, and research in relation to the pilgrimage. I hope to upload regular blogs before and during the pilgrimage including pictures to illustrate where I have been and what I have seen.
Many pilgrimage routes have emerged in the course of Mahayana Buddhist history. One of the more popular is the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, which centres on 33 temples dedicated to Kannon (Avalokiteshvara) in Western Japan. The pilgrimage dates from the Heian period (794-1185 CE), although some of the temples on its itinerary were built as early as the seventh century. As a round trip, it is some 1500 miles, although it is now common to visit the temples in a series of day trips from Kyoto, which is what I'll mostly be doing.
At each temple, the pilgrim deposits a fuda in a special offertory box. This is normally a slip of paper with a prayer or invocation inscribed on it. In addition, he or she may make a donation, offer incense and candles, strike a gong, and say a prayer or recite a sutra.
Pilgrims also carry with them a ‘pilgrims’ book’ (nokyōchō), which is inscribed and stamped (for a small fee) at each temple.
Saigoku Pilgrim's Book: Courtesy of Dr. Ian Reader Completed pilgrimage books are regarded as repositories of spiritual merit, even as passports to the Pure Land. As a consequence, they are sometimes mounted on lavish silk hangings and even placed in the funeral casket of the dead. Pilgrims may also carry additional books for stamping on behalf of family members or deceased relatives, believing that the merit generated may be transferred to them.
The preferred pilgrimage seasons are when the cherry blossom is out (late March and early April) or during Autumn. Such pilgrimages may be completed just once or many times. The Saigoku pilgrimage inspired over two hundred similar routes, including one that incorporates it into a 100-temple mega-pilgrimage.
Reading
Foard, James H. 1982. 'The Boundaries of Compassion: Buddhism and National Tradition in Japanese Pilgrimage', The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Feb., 1982), pp. 231-251.
Hoshino Eiki. 1997. 'Pilgrimage and peregrination: Contextualizing the Saikoku junrei and the Shikoku henro.' Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Fall 1997, Vol. 24/3-4, pp. 271–99.
MacWilliams, Mark. 2004. 'Living Icons: "Reizō" Myths of the Saikoku Kannon Pilgrimage', Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 35-82.
Reader, Ian. 2006. Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku, University of Hawaii Press (New edn).
Readicker-Henderson, Ed. 1995. The Traveler's Guide to Japanese Pilgrimages, Weatherhill; introduction to the Saigoku Kannon Route and the Shikoku Kobo Daishi Route.
Shiro Usui. 1990. A Pilgrim's Guide to Forty-Six Temples, Weatherhill; accounts of many historic temples mainly in Kyoto and Nara, including quite a few on the Saigoku route.